Solar-Powered Style

This is one of our favorite places in Napa to take in the views, nibble on seasonal, organic cuisine, and sip delicious world-class wine. Welcome to Cade Winery, an outstanding new property set high on Howell Mountain amid a hillside of manzanita trees. It’s striving to be California’s first Gold LEED-certified and solar-powered winery, and it’s setting a new standard in elegance and design, thanks to the superior skills of Juan Carlos Fernandez of Lail Design Group. The building, which has a 14,500-square foot network of wine caves and is built into the hillside, features materials composed of concrete with 30 percent fly ash, steel made up of 98 percent recycled material, glass and wood certified by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC), natural ventilation, blue jeans for insulation, and its own concrete mass for cooling. The hospitality building (shown here), offers stunning views of the Mayacamas Mountain Range. This is where you’ll want to pull up a chair and spend the afternoon after touring the impressive caves. Make sure to sign up for a wine pairing ($20 per person), offered twice daily. The winery, a new venture of the PlumpJack Group, produces four wines: Cade Estate Howell Mountain Cabernet Sauvignon; Cade Howell Mountain Cabernet Sauvignon; Cade Napa Cuvee Cabernet Sauvignon; and Cade Sauvignon Blanc. Twenty of the winery’s 60 acres are vineyards, and of the remaining land, 28 acres are protected to ensure they will always remain open space. Now those are the kind of details we admire. www.cadewinery.com